DE Montez Sweat only spent half a season with the Chicago Bears last year following an in-season trade, but that was enough time for QB Justin Fields to leave an impression on him. The Bears just traded Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Sweat shared his thoughts on his former quarterback recently.
“I was only there for a couple months, so I was only able to see what I was able to see”, he forewarned Chris Long on the Green Light podcast regarding his experience with Fields. “He’s a blue-collar guy. He comes in the locker room [with his] head up. First-guy-on-the-field, last-guy-to-leave-type stuff. Always working on the locker room. It seemed like he was doing everything right. He had the respect of the guys. It’s just sometimes the league does ‘league’ things. It’s out of my pay grade, man”.
The Bears committed to moving Fields this offseason to clear the path to draft Caleb Williams with the first-overall pick. As they explained, they did their research on the pros and cons of having two pedigreed quarterbacks on the roster. Their conclusion resulted in the insistence of moving Fields, settling for just a conditional sixth-round pick in 2025.
It’s a stunningly meager return for a former 11th-overall draft pick who is still on his rookie contract. Were the Bears not in position to draft Williams, they may well stick with Fields. But now he’s on the Steelers, and Sweat is confident they’re getting a good teammate.
The Steelers only seriously engaged in hard-number trade talks with Fields after trading Kenny Pickett. Their former first-round pick requested the trade himself after they signed Russell Wilson. Whether they told him Wilson was going to start ahead of him or he assumed as much, his request for trade precipitated Fields arriving in Pittsburgh.
According to head coach Mike Tomlin, Wilson is going to serve as the number one quarterback during the offseason. However, he said that Fields will have the opportunity to compete for the starting job when it is appropriate. Most appear to be skeptical that there will be any serious competition, however, in training camp.
Even if Fields doesn’t start—which appears likely—the Steelers may conceive of a package to utilize his superior athleticism. He has 2,220 rushing yards on 356 career attempts, averaging 6.2 yards per attempt with 14 touchdowns. Granted, he also has 38 career fumbles, though that number accounts for all fumbles, including aborted handoffs.
One wonders how much research the Steelers did into Fields’ character before electing to bring him into the locker room. Perhaps he didn’t have much choice either way this offseason, but how will he deal with being a backup? Sweat only shared a locker room with him for a short time, but he seems to believe in Fields’ character.
